Ron Markezich was named CIO of Microsoft earlier this spring by Rick Devenuti, corporate vice president of world-wide services and former CIO.

An All American distance runner in his college days, Markezich graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in management information systems. Before coming to Microsoft in 1998, Markezich spent more than nine years at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) in the Electronics & High Technology group, focusing on improving his clients' business operations through the use of technology.

That experience carried over to his first position at Microsoft, as general manager of Finance and Administration IT, where he worked to develop, maintain and support the systems for the Microsoft Finance, HR and Corporate Services groups. While in that role, Markezich's team received the CFO Magazine "Best in Finance" award, as well as Treasury & Risk Management's "Alexander Hamilton" award for technology.

Now, as CIO, Markezich leads the Microsoft Information Technology group (Microsoft IT), and is responsible for delivering the company's worldwide internal technology infrastructure, corporate information and internal systems. As the "Markezich Era" hits full stride, PressPass catches up with the new CIO to find out the state of IT at Microsoft.